Other Photography: Old Slides

 

Now for something almost completely different! I have some very old slide photos, most of which were taken when I lived in Worcestershire before moving to Devon in 1977. Having done very little with them I thought it would be interesting to make an article to showcase them, especially as some have amazing colours.

These first few were taken in the garden of the house where I was born and grew up. Dad was an astonishingly good and enthusiastic gardener but I mostly concentrated on those little areas of quirkiness, rather than the showy vistas.

 

The one on the left is of apple blossom with daffodills and the one on the right is a pear tree. I say left and right because I've positioned them together, but they sometimes move to one below the other when published! And more apple blossom below, followed by a group of pansies with their cheery little faces.

And one taken at night, below.

One of the places I lived was a parish called Crabbs Cross, which has nothing to do with a moody crustacean, but was named after the crossroads it encompasses. There is a much older reason for the name, as I do recall hearing that it was named after a prayer cross which was erected by a man named Crabb. However, I haven't been able to verify that through research, even though that is the most likely explanation, and which has since been lost unfortunately.

These photos were taken through the windows of my bedroom in a house belonging to a friend in Crabbs Cross. Four more below.

I also lived in a rented maisonette in Crabbs Cross on my own for a while, which I absolutely loved, but the rent was too unaffordable and I eventually had to move. Sadly, I don't seem to have any photos of it.

Across the road I took this photo, which always reminds me of Monet's haystacks paintings. I have another one, even more so, but that and another two I remember aren't amongst the ones I've scanned and I don't know where they are now.

Nearby was the entrance to a wood, which I often walked through and across several fields in order to reach my parents house. The next three are ones taken on one of the walks when there were haystacks in the fields.

Another flat I had was in the main town of Redditch, which had lovely big kitchen windows and I took several photos of them during different times. That was the last place I lived in before moving to Devon

The above were taken mostly for the colours and plant shapes in the window, plus some more sillouettes - albeit out of focus - seen below.

 

I tried focussing them in post edit but it just made things worse. I quite like them as they are though, so I'm not that bothered.

 

And two more taken on a different day.

An odd shot of the kitchen worktop in that flat with an arrangement of fruit, bread and other bits & pieces.

Followed by some more looking through the kitchen window to the houses and hills beyond.

Plus the slight sillouette of a coffee mug filled with joss sticks on that last one.

The following three was an experiment using a chair with a decorative pattern of holes, beneath which I placed a lamp to see the effect.

This next one always reminds me of a grand piano at first glance due to the shape of the shadow behind it. I'm really pleased that I still have that chair and it's next to me at the kitchen table as I'm writing this.

Then there's a photo of an alleyway between housing in a terrace. Another name is Gunnel or Ginnel. I've usually used the term Gunnel although many just call it an alleyway.

The following slide was taken as the sun was begining to set through a window in the Redditch Advertiser newspaper, where I was the graphic designer and illustrator. I actually called myself the Art Department as I was the only one in it, even when the paper reached a massive amount of pages over 70 in number, lol.

I love this photo for the light, colour and composition, along with some good memories of my two years there before moving to Devon. 

The boating lake below is in the parish of Ipsley, Redditch, where I was born and my parents still lived.

It used to be fields and the meandering River Arrow plus tributaries, where us local children used to play. Before moving I had a wander round to see what it looked like and took the photo.

Below is either the river or one of the tributaries.

Some photos of the fairground during the Redditch Carnival next, which I went to with some friends. It was also a good opportunity to try out some nightime photos and I really like the bright colours and festival feel.

I belonged to a camera club at the time and put the best two plus the stream above those into the monthly competition, and was given a scathing review! I wasn't all that surprised, being the only female member, very much ignored and obviously unwanted. It didn't help that I'd joined along with my male friend who also happened to be my landlord, so we had the same address but with different surnames, lol. After all, this was the 70s!

These two slides were of the carnival lights, which I took from my office window at the Redditch Advertiser.

And now we move onto the Devon slides. There are only three of these. I have taken a lot more slides since but they aren't of this set which are by far older and interesting for their colour and condition.

A walk across the fields next and below that a walk along the cliff to or from Beer Village.

This final one was taken through the kitchen window of my first flat in Seaton. It was an old large house converted into six flats with odd dimensions. My flat had a massive living room, large main bedroom and a tiny kitchen plus tiny second bedroom. It was also haunted!

Next up will probably be the final part of the Weather Lore series. I started working on it a while ago before having almost five weeks of flu - or at least I thought I did until I went into the draft to see how far I've got. As it happens all I've put on the page is the title and one photo. Doh!

I've already completed quite a lot to the Devon Training Centre one so I might finish and publish that one instead. I'll see how it goes.

I really hope that everyone's well. Cheers 'til next time. :)    

 

Fore Street, Beer, Devon - Part Three

This is the third part of Fore Street in the village of Beer. It's a village with the most amazing variety of architectural styles, many of which are late 19th and early 20th century Arts & Crafts buildings, along with the much older vernacular cottages and 19th century parish church. Part One and Two can be seen here and here.

In the previous part, we finished with Beach Court, seen above, which was the last building I photographed on the West side. I haven't been able to take the actual last building - The Anchor Inn - being unable to get back to Beer yet.

A view from Beach Court taken of the East side, below, where we're going next.

The first one highlighted is Sunny Nook. It already has a post of its own, which can be seen here where there are more details and photos.

A gorgeous Grade II Listed Art & Crafts building, it comprises three separate cottages in a terrace range. Dated to 1894, it has been credited to the architect David Carr, who designed several buildings in Beer, although it isn't mentioned in the Listed Buildings entry.

Built with traditional rubble walls and stone dressings, it has that lovely higgledy piggledy look of different roof and window heights. The central roof coming down low over the ground floor windows is called a catslide roof, which is an English term for very steep, low roofs on which cats can't walk across without sliding! :)

There are also some interesting lozenge-shaped brick chimney stacks, one of which can be seen below.

Walking up the street the next building along is this charming 'Captain's Cottage' with stone rubble walls, dressed stone quoins and a thatched roof.

A Grade II Listed building, it was built circa early 18th century. Called The Cottage Restaurant in the listing, it appears to be just a private dwelling now. The panelled central door, seen below, is set into a moulded door case, flanked by two three-light casement windows with leaded panes.

 

And to top that is this wonderfully ebulient thatched hood above the door.

There's a shop next door, which I didn't photograph (apart from some of it in the above photo) but next door to that is the wonderful Marine House. One of two art galleries, the other one - Steam Gallery - is on the opposite side and can be seen in part one. They can also be seen in their own article together here, where there are more details and photos.

The boat-shaped oriel window on the front is really delightful with its long stretch of casement lights. I thought this building was a listed one but apparently not, which I found surprising, although it may have changed its appearance during refurbishing.

The windows on the top floor have the iconic Elizabethan/Tudor style drip moulds above them, which may either be original or a modern addition.

And one of the photos highlighting the tiled surround at the base of the building front seen below, containing marine subjects of fish and crustations among the plain black and red tiles.

From then on there are several shops and cottages until we come to Gravel Cottages, which is a group of 7 cottages built sometime during the 18th century, two of which - nos 7 & 8 - are listed buildings.

However, the only photos I have are of number two, and the only reason I took them is because I really liked the door whilst walking past. The white plank door set into the white roughcast wall is really delightful with its black door surround and stained glass window containing depictions of porpoises.

There's another shop after Gravel Cottages, followed by the parish church of St Michael.

Built in 1887, this church succeeded a 16th century chapel on this same site. An even earlier place of worship may have stood here before that since 1122 AD, when Beer and Seaton belonged to the Abbey of Sherborne

A Grade II Listed Building, consisting mainly of coursed stone and built in the Early English/Decorated style, it's a large church comprising the nave, low north and south aisles with north and south transepts.

The walls and most of the tower consist of Hoole Head blue limestone and the columns which support the nave arcade are of Devon marble.

The lovely multifoil round windows above the arcade are really lovely and the photos below show close-ups of the marble topped with beautiful foliate carvings.

This is a fabulous, friendly church with lots of interesting artefacts and a very welcoming atmosphere. To finish this brief account here are a few more photos of the exterior, below.

 

All of these and a lot more photos and information can be seen and read about in its own article here.

Unfortunately, I don't have any more photos of buildings on this side of Fore Street, so this is going to be a rather short post. However, I do have ones of another building right at the top of the street just off the Square. I know absolutely nothing about it, not even its name, but it really struck me with its unusual architecture so I'm going to include it anyway. :)

It looks as though they consist of two separate dwellings with others behind it. I didn't have time to check properly as I whipped these off whilst waiting for my bus back to Seaton. I will definitely check it out when I get back over though.

And that's it for now. I checked out the rest of the buildings on that side of Fore Street and I will definitely be going back to take more photos at some point. When I do I'll make a Part Four for those missed out that warrant inclusion, as there'll be some from both sides.

Anyway, I'm sorry I was so long getting back to the blog. It took just over five weeks to get properly well from the flu and then I had so much else to catch up with. I did write quite a lot of the Devon Training Centre that I was going to post first but I've really struggled with it so I decided to do Fore Street instead, which I enjoyed a lot more!

I missed Spring because of the flu, but I had a lovely Summer Solstice celebration and hope everyone enjoyed it too. 

I don't know what's coming up next as I'm not sure if I'm going to finish the training centre one after all. It's been 17 years since I started my website and then the blog and I'm almost at the end of everything I've got now, so there's only one thing for it - I have to get out more!

Cheers, everyone. :)